Chicken Devil, Vol. One: Under Pressure

Chicken Devil #1-4

by Brian Buccellato (Writer), Hayden Sherman (Artist)

Mitchell Moss is about as regular as it gets. He's married with two children, and co-owns a successful chain of Memphis Hot Chicken restaurants. It's not the life that screams hero/vigilante... until he discovers that his business partner is in bed with the mob and owes them $2 million. Unfortunately, Mitch is ill-equipped to be a badass-he's just a guy who makes really good chicken. Can he protect his family from cold-blooded gangsters? Absolutely not.

But maybe the CHICKEN DEVIL can...

Writer Brian Buccellato (Detective Comics, The Flash, Witchblade) and artist Hayden Sherman (COLD WAR, MARY SHELLEY MONSTER HUNTER) serve up a darkly comedic crime drama that's juicy, tender and finger-lickin' hilarious.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

Published May 24, 2022

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm.

The good: fun dialogue, sometimes even funny dialogue. Pretty strong revenge story, then a nice twist, and then we're in the bad (see below).

The art is great, very expressive, good character designs. Page layouts however are in the bad (see below).

The bad: so there's a twist, and it sort of feels like the author doesn't know what to do with it, and doesn't know how to end the story. The last page actually made me groan with another, verging on the desperate, plot twist. And then it suddenly ends, adding to the feeling the book loses focus and direction after the major plot twist.

The art is good, but the page layouts are showy and distracting. Most of this book consists of two characters exchanging dialogue. It's like when you have a dialogue scene in a film, and the camera is constantly moving around the characters. Technically impressive, but it adds nothing to the scene, it's only distracting, and that's how I feel about all the layout dancing here, it gets in the way of the story.

Shame about that ending.

(Picked up a review copy through Edelweiss)

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chicken Devil Vol. 1 Under Pressure collects issues 1-5 of the Aftershock Comics series written by Brian Buccellato and art by Hayden Sherman.

Mitchell Most is a husband, father, and the owner of a local hot chicken restaurant. His business partner owe a Russian gang 2 million dollar and comes up with the genius decision to try to steal the gang’s own drugs to coop the loss. With his family’s life now threatened, Mitch must decide if he has what it takes to be a vigilante.

The book has an awesome premise but fails to ever really excite. It’s just your average paint by numbers revenge story but with a guy in a chicken suit. It could have been so much more. There also only a handful of pages where you get to see Mitch in the full chicken gear kicking ass. There needed to be way more poultry-attired action. The first issue also has editing and pacing issues where it felt like whole panels of story were cut or skipped to get to what Buccellato wanted to be the final page. With the ending of the book, I think a sequel could be a good improvement and I also think it could make an interesting TV show or movie.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

It goes along great...until an abrupt and unsatisfying ending.
Even if a second volume is in the offing, I fear the bad taste of the deus ex will remain.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing! Check this out immediately!

Review submitted to Diamond Bookshelf for potential professional publication.

[Autum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen—
Did the plot in this make sense??? Not really
Did I IMMENSELY enjoy the art and humor???? ABSOLUTELY this was SOOOO much fun!!

[Shanon Sanderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW WOW WOW! What an incredible page turner from Aftershock! This story was amazing and if you like the show Breaking Bad even a little bit you will love this story. If I could rate this higher I would. This story is a perfect example of why I read comics. The next volume is currently being released in single issues now. Pick this up you won't regret it!

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks, Kelly, for alerting me to the existence of this fucking mayhem in a comic book. I very much enjoyed it, and will be looking to purchase the sequel for myself and for the library, as we need more things like this around.

[Alex Sarll]

The pitch is simple enough: your classic guy out to avenge his slain family, but where they normally have a suitable background in special forces or semi-mystical assassination or similar, this poor schmuck's very particular set of skills chiefly relate to making chicken. And also he's out for vengeance while dressed as the mascot of his chain, which his partner was using, without his knowledge, to distribute drugs. Yes, the obvious Breaking Bad comparison does get mentioned, but you wonder whether the chicken costume is really so integral to the premise that he couldn't at least have been out for blood while dressed as an anthropomorphic burger to slightly obfuscate the debt. And similarly, if you're going to have this set-up, and go with an opening which is such a well-worn and now oft-criticised trope, surely you'd at least put your hands up with a joke about fridging and freezers? Which wouldn't be the most tasteful thing in the world, granted, but given the cartoony art style here as against the nature of the inciting event, I think that ship has sailed. The longer Chicken Devil goes on (and bear in mind this is only four issues), the more it loses its distinctiveness, as the lead proves surprisingly adept after all and even the chicken outfit gets darker, and it's certainly not going to win over anyone overwhelmingly fed up with such material being treated as entertainment, but at least it's not as ghoulish about that as something like Locke Lamora, and the whole enterprise is carried off with a certain classic action movie liveliness and black comedy. So basically, if that story yet again but the guy is very slightly less skilful and in a chicken suit sounds like your bag, go for it.

(Edelweiss ARC)

[Jaime K · Rating 4 out of 5]

You ever have one of those days where you're trapped in a [crappy] motel with heroin stolen by your lying partner who got your family killed...all while pissed-off gangsters are after you?

I began this not fully enjoying it. The art didn't draw me, and the massive amount of language bothers me simply because too much cursing often leaves the story lost in translation for me.

BUT. As time went on, I found myself intrigued by the storyline, excited that there will be a second volume, and I laughed far too often for a mob story.

Mitch Moss sells chicken with his business partner, Antonio. But Antonio is up to some shady business on the side, and Russian gangsters end up chasing after Mitch as well after Antonio tries to burn his drug evidence at one of their food trucks. Mitch hides everything from his family but tries to get them away, only to have them burn in a fiery boat explosion.

I absolutely hate how Mitch consistently lies to his family, especially his wife. "What's wrong?" 'Nothing.' "Are we in trouble?" 'Nope!'

After this, Mitch loses it. He ends up causing more deaths, but since they're Russian mob, he doesn't care so much. His mom offers awful advice overall (except for her previous advice to get away from Antonio).

The variant covers in the back are okay, but I love the one from Hugh Rockwood.

I was going to give this a 3/5 but given how the ending was and the humor woven throughout, I am bumping this to a 4/5. It really is a 3.5/5.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to tap out of this book by page eight. The dialog in this book is atrocious. It's as though the author watched some of the tritest action moies and TV shows, modeled his own language after the best lines but then removed all the contextual parts of the conversations. I couldn't be bothered to care about a single one of these characters enough to even parse what was going on.

The only thing this book had going for it was the page layouts. While they didn't break any new ground, they were very well placed. Some great panel bursting, nice angles and camerawork. I liked looking at the book, even if the color pallete wasn't my favorite, and the writing had me constantly considering closing the book.

I don't recommend this book unless you are a die-hard Breaking Bad fan who appreciates stylized art, and doesn't mind a story that's poorly paced and sort of abruptly ends in order to set up a second volume that doesn't seem like it's going to be any more interesting.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. I felt like the first issue/chapter of this collection was trying to break the record Garth Ennis created in Preacher for most F-bombs per page, but really? None of this blew my skirt up. There were a couple of moments when I laughed and the last page of the final issue/chapter caught me by surprise, but I read the praise it got here on Goodreads and I'm wondering if it's the same book. *shrugs* Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

[zackxdig · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an ok story about someone dressing up as a chicken and becoming a vigilante after they think their family was killed. The art was fine but at times the story and characters got lost. But now it’s a whole chicken family with the crooked cops wanting to take down the mob.

[Darsh Narayan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 Fun, action packed, colorful, funny dialogue.

You can definitely see the similarities to Hotline Miami.

I could imagine it being adapted into some type of movie/tv show with a soundtrack comprised of synthwave and west coast rap.

[José Goitia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read that will have you craving hot chicken and good old fashioned revenge.

[Nando Gigaba · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book because of the title and covers, but I wasn't a fan of the writing or the artwork. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next in this series.

[uzhuj · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's nonsense. Really lousy at parts, but it makes an overally okay impression and the combination of images and words just makes you want to read on.

[Shawn Ingle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Would have been 4 but I didn’t love the ending. Fun story though about an average guy who loses everything. He decides to get revenge but obviously has no idea what he’s doing.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could've made for a good one-shot, except it ended awkwardly and in a way that's just going to stretch things. I'll pass on the sequel.

[Psalm Amos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art is carrying hard
Idk it’s okay idk if it’s finished I can’t find anything after issue 7 but I’m enjoying it

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once it gets its obvious—and referenced—Breaking Bad influence out of its system, this settles down into a pacey and enjoyable revenge thriller, full of incidents and violence, and twists and turns, greatly enlivened by Sherman's stylish art (though his layouts do often cause confusion), and it's to be hoped that Buccellato's often atrocious dialogue is a sarcastic affectation.